In many agricultural applications gel seeding is utilized. In gel seeding, seeds carried within a gel-like suspension are distributed for planting. Gel seeding results in certain benefits in that seeds may be pregerminated prior to planting. This provides certain benefits such as the ability to plant seeds earlier than normal, as the seeds are protected by the gel coating. Another benefit to gel seeding is that gel coated seeds may be planted later than normal with the resultant earlier harvest because of the pregermination and a further benefit of gel seeding is the elimination of the need to transplant seedlings grown in a hot house environment to the outdoors.
When gel coating of seeds is utilized particular problems of seeding result in that normal seeding techniques are often not suitable due to the necessity to preserve and protect budding plants and fragile seedlings.